The new film from Argentine auteur Pablo Trapero (Crane World, White Elephant) recounts the astonishing true story of a seemingly normal middle-class family that trafficked in the kidnapping, ransoming and murder of the wealthy.

The Clan

Pablo Trapero

Year

2015

Runtime

108 min

Language

Spanish

Country

Spain, Argentina

Principal Cast

Guillermo Francella, Peter Lanzani

The disappeared — los desaparecidos —
are words that carry special resonance in
Argentina. Long associated with the crimes
of the military junta of the 1970s, the term
takes on a different, but no less chilling,
meaning in the hands of filmmaker Pablo
Trapero. Based on a true story that rocked
Argentina, The Clan tells the almost unbelievable
tale of the Clan Puccio, a seemingly
normal middle-class family who kidnapped
wealthy people off the street, held the victims
for ransom, and, once paid, killed them.

On the surface the Puccios look like
most other families. Steely-eyed patriarch
Arquimedes (Guillermo Francella) presides
over a household where his wife, sons, and
daughters gather for evening meals and discuss
their days. Alejandro (Peter Lanzani),
the eldest son, is a famed rugby player on
Argentina's national team, and the film
turns on his relationship with his father.
Arquimedes is coolly efficient, his "hits"
meticulously planned, but he relies above
all on his son's complicity. Alex shares in
the ransom money; his mother and other
siblings seem blissfully unaware, or they
choose to ignore what is happening right
under their noses.

Trapero details the ordinariness of the
Puccios' domestic life while not sparing
us the brutality of the kidnappings. But, as
the times change, Arquimedes, a product of
the dictatorship that led to the disappearances
of political enemies, finds that those
who once protected him can no longer do
so. Family tensions increase, Alex begins to
question things, and a long-lost son returns
from Australia.

The Clan is a disturbing, impressive, and
beautifully controlled film from a director
whose work matures with each new project.
Also driving it is the beloved Guillermo
Francella's magnificent turn: a performance
for the ages.